Rooster Booster crows at pretenders

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IN THE starstruck build-up to the first Champion Hurdle of a new era, the evidence of the formbook was widely ignored. Desperate for an icon to succeed Istabraq, punters plunged on a novice once trained amid the bluebloods of Ballydoyle. The battle-hardened grey from the fields of Dorset seemed too prosaic an option.

Cheltenham, however, sets an unforgiving examination and, while the pin-up that is Rhinestone Cowboy stuttered over his lines, Rooster Booster was word perfect. It looked the most open renewal in many years, yet it was won, by 11 lengths, with the imperious disdain of Istabraq himself.